In her 14th novel steeped in the Ojibwe way of life, Louise Erdrich unfolds the thoughts of Joe Coutts as he reflects on the incident that ended his childhood.

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By Susie Stooksbury/Special to The Oak Ridger

Oakridger - Oak Ridge, TN

By Susie Stooksbury/Special to The Oak Ridger

Posted Nov. 13, 2012 at 7:01 PM

By Susie Stooksbury/Special to The Oak Ridger

Posted Nov. 13, 2012 at 7:01 PM

In her 14th novel steeped in the Ojibwe way of life, Louise Erdrich unfolds the thoughts of Joe Coutts as he reflects on the incident that ended his childhood. When he was 13, Joe's mother Geraldine was brutally attacked and raped. Barely escaping with her life, she quickly sank into depression. While Joe's father Bazil, the tribal judge, desperately tried to do what he could within the maze of the law, Joe and his friends decided to take matters into their own hands. “The Round House” is the second volume in the trilogy Erdrich began in 2008 with “The Plague of Doves.”

While Marie Curie is noted for her Nobel Prize-winning work in radioactivity, as a young widow she also managed to raise two daughters who became quite successful in their own fields — in fact, one of them was also a Nobel Prize winner. Shelley Emling concentrates on the years following Curie's second Nobel win and the close relationship she forged with Irene and Eve in “Marie Curie and Her Daughters” (540.920).

Children's book illustrator Lucy Painter has been keeping secrets most of her life. When she was 12 and her father died, her mother convinced her to keep his suicide secret. As an adult, she has kept secret the identity of her married lover — even from their two children, pre-teen Maggie and young Felix. But when Lucy takes the kids to live in her childhood home in D.C., angry Maggie finds a sympathetic ear in their neighbor Zee who is more than willing to take Lucy's place in her daughter's heart. Lucy soon realizes she must open up to Maggie or lose her. “You Are the Love of My Life” is the latest by Susan Shreve.

James Witherspoon, who owns a successful limousine service in Atlanta, has two families — his “first” wife and daughter, Laverne and Chaurisse who know nothing of his “second” family, Gwen and Dana. Vivacious Dana, however, knows that Chaurisse is her half-sister, and she can't help resenting the lackluster girl who gets preferential treatment from their father. Eventually the girls meet and Dana maneuvers her way into Charuisse's life but the outcome is dramatically unexpected. Tayari Jones finely captures middle-class Atlanta during the ‘80s in her compelling novel, “Silver Sparrow.”

When Time humor columnist Joel Stein learned he and his wife Cassandra were going to have a son, he had an anxiety attack. He didn't know anything about sports or how to fix stuff or how to build a campfire or how to play catch — all the things he figured a father needed to show his son. So, in good reporter fashion, Stein set out to experience as much macho as he could. The result is both laugh-out-loud funny and thought provoking — “Man Made: a Stupid Quest for Masculinity” (817.000).

Page 2 of 2 - Twenty years ago, Kenneth C. Davis hit the New York Times best seller list with “Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History.” He has used that same format successfully over the years, and now he focuses on our Commanders in Chief. “Don't Know Much About the American Presidents” (973.099) gives interesting and unknown facts about the whole bunch — Washington to Obama — with detailed time lines, fast factoids, and recommended reading on each one.

Other new titles:

Fiction — “Ancient Light,” by John Banville;

“Laws in Conflict: a Mystery Set in Sixteenth Century Ireland” (M), by Coar Harrison;

“Salvation of a Saint” (M), by Keigo Higashino;

“The Vanishing Point,” by Val McDermid.

Non-fiction — “I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High” (371.100), by Tony Danza;